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Cognitive architectures
Alan Newell, the pioneer
A single system (mind) produces all aspects of behavior. It is one mind that minds them all.
Even if the mind has parts, modules, components, or whatever, they all mesh together to produce behavior… If a theory covers only one part or component, it flirts with trouble from the start.
It goes without saying that there are dissociations, interdependencies, impenetrabilities, and modularities... But they don’t remove the necessity of a theory that provides the total picture and explains the role of the parts and why they exist.
Newell, 1990
Unified theories of cognition
The question for me is how can the human mind occur in the physical universe. We now know that the world is governed by physics. We now understand the way biology nestles comfortably within that. The issue is how will the mind do that as well. The answer must have the details.
I got to know how the gears clank and how the pistons go and all the rest of that detail... My question leads me down to worry about the architecture.
Newell, 1990
What are the parts of the cognition engine?
The level of the cognitive architecture
is the level at which general cognitive mechanisms can be described irrespective of their implementation (Taatgen & Anderson, 2010), i.e. Marr’s
algorithmic level
?
- perception
- action
- control
- representation
- attention
- decision making
- learning
- memory
- planning- ...
Paradox: DeepBlue (chess) vs.
Darpa.We know how to mimic some
human-specific abilities, whereas we
are unable to mimic the most basic
animal ones (sensori-motor skills).
A
cognitive architecture
is a formal theory of how the mind works, which can be implemented computationally
Understanding information processing systems at three levels of analysis (Marr, 1982)
Classical, Alternative and Modern views
Can you drive only with a motor engine?
Embodiment
is the surprisingly radical hypothesis that the brain is not the sole cognitive resource we have available to us to solve problems. Our bodies and their perceptually guided motions through the world do much of the work required to achieve our goals, replacing the need for complex internal mental representations. This simple fact utterly changes our idea of what “cognition” involves, and thus embodiment is not simply another factor acting on an otherwise disembodied cognitive processes.
Brain
Body
Environment
What is missing in those approaches?
Embodied cognition
What is a ball?
Feeling softness
How to catch a ball?
Top-down representation-based
vs.
Bottom-up behavior-based
4-step methodology
Early days: General Problem Solver
Separating the knowledge
From the strategy of how to solve problems
ACT-R
Spaun
Top-down, representation-
based approches
Asimo vs. Big-Dog
But big-dog doesn't play chess
A complex internal representation of a task is
decomposed into sub-tasks to be executed,
recursively
Distributed Adaptive Control (DAC)
Merging both approaches
Bottom-up, behavior-based approches
A variety of simple behaviors are built into the robot's repertoire. These behaviors are layered and organized into a hierarchy, with more abstract goals farther up the heirarchy
Combining embodied behaviors
J.K. O’Regan,
Why red doesn’t sound like a bell: Understanding the feel of consciousness
, 2011
Subsumption architecture (Brooks, 1986)
Wilson and Golonka,
Embodied Cognition is Not What you Think it is
, Frontiers in Psychology, 2013
Newell, Shaw, & Simon, 1959
Eliasmith et al.,
A Large-Scale Model of the Functioning Brain
, Science, 2012
Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network
is more than connecting a brain and a body
The world is its own best model
(Rodney Brooks)
What is missing in those approaches?
Embodiement
Top-down, representation-based approches
A complex internal representation of a task is decomposed into sub-tasks to be executed, recursively
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